Lessons About Freedom
by Ultrawoman
Summary: Sequel to 'Lawyered Up'. Parker is nothing less than a miracle in the lives of brothers Eliot Spencer and Lindsey McDonald. They wouldn't both be here right now if not for her, at a wedding neither brother could've predicted when they originally met the world's greatest thief. For poestheblackcat, and anyone else who might be interested.


**A/N: So, following on from my one-shot 'Lawyered Up', which I wrote for poestheblackcat's birthday (12th Sept.), she asked if I would ever write a sequel with the wedding of Eliot & Parker in it. I hope this kinda covers what she wanted, though the focus is a little less E/P and a little more brotherly love...**

_**Disclaimer: All recognisable characters belong to the creators of Leverage and/or Angel - basically, they don't belong to me!**_

Lessons About Freedom

Eliot Spencer didn't like mirrors for a long time. He always swore he'd never face one again until he could look himself in the eye, be okay with the man staring back at him. As far as he could tell, that day was never coming for more years than he could count. Things were so different now. The team had changed Eliot, but for all Nate, Sophie, and Hardison had done, it was Parker that had made the real change.

Parker believed in Eliot, she trusted him from the very beginning. They had come so far that the hitter now actually believed he deserved at least a little of the happiness he had found. He had paid his dues to a degree, lived through the nightmares, done so much towards resetting the balance he had skewed long ago, somewhere between the Army and Moreau. The truth of it was, he wasn't the only one to turn his life around in such a way.

Today when Eliot Spencer looked in the mirror, he didn't just see a half-decent human being look back at him in the reflection, he saw another similar face over his shoulder, with an awkward smile on his lips.

"You ever think we'd see this day, man?" asked Lindsey as he tied his tie just like he had a hundred times before in his lawyer days.

"Depends," Eliot replied, his hands following the same action at his own neck. "You talkin' about us being in the same room again without beating the crap outta each other? Or me gettin' hitched?"

Lindsey let out a laugh at that, albeit short and rusty sounding. The guy just didn't have all that much to be happy about most of the time, and even less to laugh over.

"Both," he admitted as the brothers faced each other then. "'S been a bumpy road."

Eliot couldn't argue with that. He honestly never saw this day coming either, on both counts. As far as he knew Lindsey was dead, and Eliot himself deserved to do nothing but suffer til the day he joined him in some hellish afterlife. Parker had just about changed everything. Today was the day Eliot Spencer married his fiancee, the world's greatest thief, the woman that had given him back his long lost brother and shown him he did still have a heart worth saving. He would love her forever for those two things alone, but there was so much more to it than even that.

"Y'know you get this soppy-ass puppy-eyed look on your face when you're thinkin' about her," said Lindsey, baiting his brother on purpose.

"Don't care, man," Eliot shook his head as he grinned. "Today, there is not a single goddamn thing you can say to make me mad, so stop trying," he said amiably, even as he shoved him aside to walk by.

Lindsey watched his brother pick up the buttonhole and fasten it to his lapel. He sure as hell never expected a reunion with his brother six months ago, and he had Parker to thank for that. Hell, he had her to thank for an awful lot of things, some of which she didn't even know about.

The night they met had been a piece of the puzzle that helped him escape Wolfram & Hart with enough information to keep them at bay. A sensible person would have stayed away but he just couldn't help himself. Lindsey had headed back in, thinking he was so tough and smart, ever since his brother had taught him some fancy fighting moves to go with his own magicks. The combination ought go have been enough, but even Lindsey, as smart as he was, underestimated his old company.

That Eurotrash vampire, Angel, he was a little more predictable. The shots his flunkie fired lodged in kevlar, and a glamour made him look dead just long enough. Then he ran and hid. It was the only way for a long time. Lindsey didn't even dare to call his brother and let him know he was alive. It was wrong, but he just didn't feel like he had a choice.

"Linds?"

"Sorry, what?" he checked when he suddenly realised Eliot was in front of him, waving a flower in his face and looking worried.

"Don't zone out on me now, best man," the hitter smirked, clapping Lindsey on the shoulder with one hand as he passed him his buttonhole with the other.

"I'm sorry," he repeated, so sincerely and with such a look on his face, Eliot knew it wasn't all about losing concentration.

They both had things to apologise for, to atone for, with each other as much as anybody else. Now wasn't the time though. Lindsey must've said sorry a hundred times for letting Eliot think he was dead so long. Likewise his brother had said the same word because he didn't make enough effort to look for him, to check the facts he ought to have known were fiction. He just made himself believe what he was told, that Lindsey was really gone. In his heart of hearts he never truly wanted to believe it, and Parker had proven it to be a lie all along.

"Not today, man," he said, pulling his older-by-seven-minutes brother into a one armed hug. "Today we smile and pretend it's all okay," he said definitely. "For Parker's sake as well as our own."

They were pretending, if the truth be known, because things weren't how they used to be. There had been an awful lot of water under the McDonald-Spencer bridge (Lindsey's professional name having been Momma's maiden name), that was for sure. The bond they'd had since childhood was still there, even after they parted badly so many times, after the days of evil law firms and over-bearing crimelords, and way too much blood on both their hands. What would be forgiven could not so easily be forgotten. They were brothers still and brothers always, loving each other because there was no way to switch it off, but things weren't all peachy keen.

If not for Parker, things wouldn't even be this good. She was so very determined that the siblings meet up and be friends and all. Eliot understood, so did Lindsey actually. She was an only child, an orphan with no real family to turn to. As such, she believed that anyone with family ought to make the very best of it, no matter what. For her sake if not their own, the brothers would get along, find a way through their troubles.

The day they met up at the safe house in Cheyenne had started with hugs and smiles. Over the course of a weekend, there had been raised voices, tearful tales told, and one serious physical fight that Parker had stopped herself with a high-pitched whistle and the threat of severe taser use. The look on her face had scared both brothers, but Eliot more than Lindsey. It was in that moment he wondered if he was about to marry his Momma. The expressions on his fiancee's face had been way too distinctive for a second as she glared at the two of them and told them to quit it.

Now here they were, the day of the wedding. Lindsey was to be best man, Hardison the ring bearer. Nate was set to give away the girl he had played father too for so long, and Sophie was a beautiful bridesmaid. The scene was set, and now all that was left was to say 'I do'.

"For what it's worth, I'm glad you're here, Lindsey," Eliot told him as they both checked themselves over for the final time and headed for the door one behind the other. "I honestly couldn't imagine anyone else bein' m'best man," he muttered, hating the fact he was practically turning into a girl as he said those words.

"Suck it up, El," his brother told him, even as tears seemed to be trying to form in his own baby blues. "Parker needs a real man to marry. She deserves that much."

Eliot just nodded his head then, knowing that woman of his deserved so much more than he could ever give her. Still, she seemed content enough to love him and be loved in return. As her vows would attest, just a few moments later.

She told Eliot that when she met Lindsey and then him, she never could've imagined she would be getting a family out of the deal. Today she became both a wife and a sister, and that was worth more than all the money or diamonds she ever stole. If there was a dry eye in the house after her speech, it must've been a miracle, Sophie said, but Eliot disagreed. The miracle was that he was here, slipping a wedding band on the finger of the most amazing woman he ever met in his life, with his elusive twin brother right by his side.

Parker said she found family in Lindsey and himself, but Eliot found home stood between the two most important people ever in his life. It was a home he hoped never to have to leave, for the rest of his life.


End file.
